Sharing thoughts in our quest to regain some of the peace and tranquility we knew as children growing up in rural America in a time gone by. I hope you find this narrative both comforting and inspiring. I hope it brings back memories and helps you move closer to your dreams. This is one aspect of my life that has never faltered, never strayed from home. This is a dream come true.

Monday, June 15, 2015

(Jun 14) Bathroom Wall Sided

You all know the saying about the best laid plans . . . We made our plans on Saturday, after we finished a window tinting job in Fort Worth. We were going to stay focused and get the 3 walls with sheet rock painted. Period. We went over the checklist - brushes, rollers, drop cloth, sanding blocks (to smooth last few places that had recently been mudded), etc. We purposefully didn't buy lumber so that we could stay on task. We drove out to the property and quickly discovered that we had forgotten the paint. It was still sitting in the back of our Blazer. :(

Plan B - (because I'm not buying more paint) is now to finish the bathroom wall. Kim had eyed some tongue and groove cedar ( 5x the cost of the pine we used last month on the living room wall!) at Lowe's several weeks before so we headed to Greenville Sunday morning after a little birdwatching. Picked out the lumber as well as some other little tools and supplies we needed and headed back. We weren't back at the cabin long before a deluge of a storm hit and dumped a couple of inches of rain on us in a couple of hours.

We cut, glued and nailed boards on the North wall of the bathroom until the rain broke. We decided we had pushed our luck far enough and that we should attempt to get out of the driveway before it had soaked/softened too much. I really didn't want to be out there after dark trying to get the car out of the mud again.

We got out just fine this time. I feel like an experienced rally road race driver these days. I go through the course in my head a couple of times, I tighten my seat belt, then I floor it - sliding, drifting and slinging mud for the better part of 400' 'til we hit a dry spot so that we can re-coup to make a run at the last 50' of the driveway. I wonder what big mudder tires would look like on my little Hyundai? lol

The experience may continue. We've also hit some snags on our refinance and may NOT be getting the driveway and grid-tie we were hoping for this summer. Time will tell. Anyway - here's a photo of the wall we worked on this weekend. The table saw got wet with all of the rain and I didn't want to rick electrocution so I couldn't rip the very last piece but we'll do that as well as a custom piece of cove molding on the router next time.

We haven't decided on the window trim style for this window yet but are planning a mirror on a hinge that will cover the breaker panel.

On a serious note, my younger daughter, Sabrina (who just graduated HS in 3 years! :) was helping me on a window tint job last week when a 6" razor she was using slipped and hit her in the face. She cut her face pretty deeply and smacked herself hard enough to loosen 2 of her teeth. She's fine now, save some fresh stitches and short a little blood. Another of life's milestones. It seems to slap you quickly with a reminder that things can go bad very, very quickly. I must say, the surgeon took his time and did a really nice job, trying to minimize the scarring.

She's a real trooper. She told the doctor at the emergency room to just finish, even though the lidocaine had worn off before he finished stitching her and was back on the window tint job the next day to help me finish up. "Thanks" to all who have reached out with prayers and thoughts. :)

We'll be back at it again next weekend - Lord willing and the creek don't rise! I say that because there's a tropical storm hitting the Texas coast and heading this way in a couple of days. The flood waters are still pouring over the local dam. Can't wait to see what this brings!